“I’ve always felt like, to have a successful team, you gotta have a few bad citizens on the team,” Pinkett told the show. “I mean, that’s how Ohio State used to win all the time. They would have two or three guys that were criminals. That just adds to the chemistry of the team. I think Notre Dame is growing because maybe they have some guys that are doing something worthy of a suspension, which creates edge on the football team. You can’t have a football team full of choir boys. You get your butt kicked if you have a team full of choir boys. You gotta have a little bit of edge, but the coach has to be the dictator and ultimate ruler.”

Pinkett would then clarify what he meant by “criminals.”

“I don’t want any mass murders or rapists,” Pinkett said. “I want guys that maybe get caught drinking that are underage, or guys that maybe got arrested because they got in a fight at a bar, or guys that are willing to cuss in public and don’t mind the repercussions of it. That’s the type of criminal I’m talking about.”

Yeah, I can see how a mass murderer could adversely affect team chemistry. Total downer, man.

This guy is actually a radio analyst for Notre Dame. Any bets on how long he keeps that job?

He may have a point. I want a LB that has cleaned out a bar or two. I don’t know of any NBA centers tougher than Dave Cowens and he whipped many a butt in east Albany when he was at FSU. He was smart enough to have his fun out of town. I never heard of him starting a fight, but he went to bars where fighting was part of the floor show. I have never been drunk enough to start shit with an athlete that was six foot nine, but a 150lb drunk redneck thinks he can lick the world.

So.. Clarify. You think Jarvis Jones should get loaded at a bar and start a fight? I’m interested in solid, fundamental football players, not in some abstract concept that kids with ‘bad streaks’ make teams tougher and harder to beat.

Amen brother! I wish Odell was back there now! Look, Stanfill and Scott were not Sunday school teachers but they kicked ass on the field. If you play football your job is to kick the ass of the guy in front of you and to continue to kick his ass until you break his spirit and he quits. You can be a good sport after the game. You don’t have to be a barroom brawler to do this, but it helps.

Pinkett to report his sin at confession. Will be given 10 Hail Mary’s and temporary duty orders to the Alabama broadcast team to experience what it’s like when the coach is a dictator and ultimate ruler.

I’ve actually heard Tommy Tuberville say something very similiar without the really stupid, unnecessarily extreme terms like ‘choir boys” and “criminals’ and the details of what he meant by criminals. He made the point that he would take up to 10% of guys with questionable backgrounds and records hoping that his program could have a positive, reforming affect. He may have even said, “minister” to them.
I remember his case in point being that lbr, from Columbus I think, who was a stud, but he eventually had to kick him off the team. The name excapes me.
Either way, the manner in which this was stated was flatly stupid and I would bet the under of 6 days.

You are from Hahira and you say that? We played Ya’ll back in the stone age when we used a rock for a football and Ya’ll were the meanest SOBs we ever played. The QB and I were riding around the following Sunday afternoon and I noticed the scabs on his forearms. I said “what kind of cleat marks are those?” He said “that’s where those crazy bastards were biting me in the pileups.” We had a dual threat at QB so I guess if you bite big enough plugs out of his forearms he doesn’t pass or run the option as well. We won anyway, but we didn’t look forward to playing Ya’ll again.

How did he know it wasn’t his own guy? Bama had that problem in practice under Bear. Same player forearmed Tech’s Chick Granning out with nubs of his front teeth barely left showing in his gums. After the jaw was finally wired back together, he didn’t play so much. The perp went on to play for Dallas.

White on white criminals have been around since the 50s in college football. Back then they would throw your ass in jail if you cursed, but criminal behavior on the field was acceptable. It was also acceptable if the victim was black.

He knew it wasn’t his own guy because we did not bite folks, our coach frowned on things like that. Trust me, I ran enough penalty laps. I will say this, one of their guys speared our halfback on the ground. The same guy went up for a pass a few plays later and our safety nailed him in the small of the back with the crown of his helmet. I never knew a human body could bend in that way. Payback is a bitch! My left forearm is covered in scar tissue from setting up blockers and I still try try answer phones that aren’t ringing. I know a little about South Ga. football. It always was brutal and it still is.

That isn’t the argument. I think taking the best players regardless of background will help your team, but if you are going to argue that guys getting in bar fights and arrested for underage drinking fosters some kind of “team chemistry”, you’re insane.

I agree BR, but just for the record, Hal Mumme articulated a contrary position than the second half of your comment. He told his qb (the one after C Hatcher won the Harlon Hill (D-2 Heisman) and graduated), that the team needed him here ‘working out in the summer, practicing with the team, getting drunk and partying with them’. That qb didn’t do this, and then proceeded to take Valdosta State to the Natty Championship that year as they lost to UNA, at UNA, in rain & snow (of course VSU had a passing attack & UNA ran the ball primarily). That qb also finished 2nd that year in Harlon Hill voting, he lost only to the rb from UNA.

Finally, somebody made a comment dumber than the one I did 3 months ago:

“His wife, if she looks the part and she’s a D-I recruit, then you’ve got a chance to get hired. That’s part of the deal.”

Vanderbilt Head Coach James Franklin, 30 May 2012

Bloviation for the Dawgnation

Quote Of The Day

“It's definitely different not knowing exactly who it's gonna be, but in a way, I feel like that's good,” he said. “One of my old coaches from Valdosta told me that competition is one of the best coaches. And I feel like, as well as each one of those three guys is performing, they're not gonna do anything but make each other better.” -- Jay Rome, The Red & Black, 3/25/15